Sustainable weight loss over three years in children with obesity: a pragmatic family-centered lifestyle intervention

Introduction Childhood obesity has psychological consequences and increases the risk of continuous obesity into adulthood, associated with development of non-communicable disease (e.g. type 2 diabetes). Short-term weight loss intervention studies show good results but long-term studies are limited. Methods One hundred ninety-nine obese children (4-18 years of age), with a BMI-SDS (standard deviation score) above + 2 SDS were enrolled into a multifactorial family-centered lifestyle intervention study. The children had yearly visits in the outpatient clinic for anthropometrics, blood samples and DXA-scans, and 6-8 meeting with community health workers between these visits. The children followed the intervention up to 3 years. Results After a follow-up of 26.7 +/- 17.5 months a reduction in BMI-SDS of - 0.25 SDS (p < 0.001) was observed. The 57 children who were adherent to the intervention for >= 2 years had significantly reduced BMI-SDS compared to the 142 children with shorter intervention (BMI-SDS: - 0.38 +/- 0.67 vs. - 0.20 +/- 0.50,p = 0.036). All weight loss was accompanied by decrease in fat mass and increase in muscle mass (p < 0.001). Conclusion The intervention was found to induce long-term reduction in BMI-SDS in obese children, with beneficial change in body composition. Children who followed the intervention the longest had the greatest reduction in BMI-SDS.